Hebrew Bible Study
Hebrew Bible Study

Chasidut for Genesis 23:13

וַיְדַבֵּ֨ר אֶל־עֶפְר֜וֹן בְּאָזְנֵ֤י עַם־הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר אַ֛ךְ אִם־אַתָּ֥ה ל֖וּ שְׁמָעֵ֑נִי נָתַ֜תִּי כֶּ֤סֶף הַשָּׂדֶה֙ קַ֣ח מִמֶּ֔נִּי וְאֶקְבְּרָ֥ה אֶת־מֵתִ֖י שָֽׁמָּה׃

And he spoke unto Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying: ‘But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear me: I will give the price of the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.’

Kedushat Levi

‎Genesis 6,21. ‎“and you are to take ‎for yourself some of everything that serves as food, etc;” here ‎the Torah alludes to the reason why until the deluge man was ‎forbidden to eat animals, (according to Nachmanides). Noach ‎saved the animals from extinction during the deluge; he ‎therefore- as representative of the human race- became the ‎‎“owner” of the animal kingdom, and as such entitled to use some ‎of the animals, after due preparation without causing pain to ‎the animals, as food for himself. When Avraham, in Genesis 23,13 ‎urged Efron to accept the money he had readied for the purchase ‎of the cave of Machpelah wherein he planned to bury Sarah, the ‎word ‎קח‎ is used as denoting the acquisition of something. ‎Avraham had learned this expression and its meaning from our ‎verse where it is used in this sense for the first time. Noach made ‎an additional acquisition when taking the animal into the ark ‎with him. [He had previously been permitted to use the animals ‎as beasts of burden, etc. Ed.]‎
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Previous VerseFull ChapterNext Verse